BJP is trying to destroy Bengal culture: CM

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee yesterday dubbed Prime Minister Narendra Modi a “champion liar” and accused the Bharatiya Janata Party of conspiring to destroy the state’s culture and heritage.
A day after Bengal Renaissance figure Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar’s bust was vandalised during BJP president Amit Shah’s roadshow here, a political slugfest intensified as Modi charged Banerjee with orchestrating the attack on Shah and the Trinamool Congress chief hit back calling him a champion liar.
“Modi is a champion liar. I have seen many prime ministers but never seen a liar prime minister like him. Speaking in Bengal, he dares to lie in broad daylight saying Amit Shah was attacked.
“It is them who attacked Bengal’s culture, it’s them who vandalised Vidyasagar’s statue,” Banerjee alleged while addressing a rally in Agarpara in North 24 Parganas district.
Modi during an election rally in Basirhat Lok Sabha constituency in West Bengal, said the attack on Shah’s roadshow in College Street came days after Banerjee vowed to take revenge against the BJP.
Banerjee claimed that the BJP was out to destroy Bengal’s culture and heritage.
“Bereft of any ideology or culture, the BJP is conspiring to destroy Bengal’s culture. It’s Bengal which gave India’s national anthem and national song,” said Banerjee invoking Rabindranath Tagore and Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay.
“Their only gameplan is to destroy Bengal’s constitution, but we will never allow that,” she thundered.
Reiterating her allegations of the BJP using money and muscle power to vitiate the poll process, Banerjee said despite all its efforts the saffron party will be defeated.
Banerjee later took out a march with hundreds of Trinamool supporters deriding Modi, Shah and the BJP for the desecration of the polymath’s bust and vowed to avenge it by defeating the BJP in the poll battle.
In Lucknow meanwhile, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) president Mayawati said that Modi’s tenure had been full of violence and hence he was “unfit” for the office he holds.
She termed Modi’s legacy as chief minister of Gujarat a “stain on the BJP and country”.
“Prime Minister Narendra Modi was indeed the chief minister of Gujarat for a longer time than I was the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh but his legacy is a blot on the BJP and the country while in my regime, Uttar Pradesh was free of riots and anarchy,” she said.
Mayawati said her government was “fit” when it came to matters of public interest while the BJP has been “unfit”.
“Modi’s term as a prime minister as well as chief minister was full of violence. He is unfit to hold public office,” she said.
“The Modi government is anti-Dalit and have been trying to defame the BSP since the past five years. They have failed because the BSP is an open book but Dalits should beware of their motives,” she said.
Stepping up her attack on Modi and his party, she accused the BJP of having the most corrupt members. “BJP has a disease of calling other parties corrupt. The nation knows that the most corrupt people belong to their party.”